Chapter 14 #2
The question was so rude, so provoking, that both Inor and Tallu turned to me. The former jerked his head, waving over his ear. But I had been paying attention. It was not Tallu’s ghosts that he heard.
Was he haunted as Tallu was? Was there some Krustavian ghost whispering in his ear who had little interest in his well-being?
It reminded me again of Tallu’s secret terror—what if the ghosts were also haunting his brother? And what if, unlike those who surrounded Tallu, they had no stake in his sanity?
“King Inor?” I pressed. “You spoke of lights and voices and taking them away from Tallu. What were you speaking of?”
“I—” Inor focused on me, his eyes narrowing, the expression wrinkling his face.
Without the brilliant throne behind him, darkening his skin, I could tell that he wore gold paint the way that our guide had worn blue.
It stained his features, making them flash into the shape of a snarling badger as he glared at me.
“Little prince, you seek to play in this game of kings and emperors? I would not advise you to join in the play. There’s far too much at stake, and you could lose too much for it to be worth it. ”
Inor’s words held weight, as though I was finally speaking to the head of the Badger Guild rather than a petulant man on a throne.
“You show us power beyond that of the stone mages. I’ve never heard of the mage who can pull light from the air—even the air mages claim no such powers.
And yet, His Imperial Majesty did not question your powers, nor your abilities.
His Imperial Majesty merely asked for evidence that his brother still lives.
” The room had finally quieted. Next to me, Tallu had control of himself, and I heard a slip of leather and a soft sound of metal as Asahi put his mask back on. “Does Prince Hallu live?”
“Yes, he does.” Inor dipped his head, the markings on his face starting to glow in the dim light. “Hallu lives, and he is mine. He is your heir, and he will inherit the throne.”
“Until you produce him,” Tallu said, sounding more like the emperor he had been raised to be, “he is as he was before we received your message. The dead brother who was my heir.”
“We argue in circles. I have him, and with him, I will have your throne.” Inor shifted, and I could hear voices in his movement, a click of something snapping together, the snap of something slithering together.
I heard a chorus of words, a chittering of them in unison, a sound like something horrible crawling out of the dark.
I knew that sound. I knew what creatures from Krustau might make them. I frowned at Tallu. Did he hear it as well?
But Tallu had become the Emperor of the Southern Imperium, his shoulders back, his face impassive except for the slightest smile at his lips, as though the king of the Shadow Throne were beneath him.
“I see we have wasted our time. You do not have my brother. You have nothing that I need.” Tallu raised his chin and shook his head once. “There will be no more imperial messengers for you to decapitate.”
“No!” This time, the chittering voices chorused with King Inor, and I searched the room for any evidence of the insects Asahi and I had fought. I didn’t see any, but the room was full of shifting shadows, and it was nearly impossible for me to tell what was real and what was a trick of the light.
King Inor stood, the throne behind him beginning to glow, lighting him from behind so that he himself became nothing more than a dark outline. “I am the Shadow King. I am! You will listen to me, or I will unleash much worse against your kingdom.”
“There is nothing Krustau could do that would hurt my empire,” Tallu purred coldly. “When we took the Lakeshore Palace and the land around it from you, we thought we had taught the dwarves their place. I see we were wrong.”
Backlit, it was difficult to see the king’s face, but Inor’s eyes glowed red, and when he opened his mouth, I thought I saw more teeth than any man should have. “You have no idea what Krustau is capable of. You are a child. I gave you your throne, and I will take it away if I so desire.”
“You admit to killing my father, Emperor Millu?” Tallu asked. He arched a single eyebrow, his lip curling back in amusement. “How… inhospitable, King Inor.”
“Yes.” Inor shook his head violently and raised a hand as though batting away an irritating insect. He slouched back into his throne, still lit from behind. Somehow, he looked smaller in it. “I—you—I have your brother.”
He repeated the last, as though it was the one thing he could hold on to, the one truth he knew for certain.
Frowning at him, I looked around again, wishing I could approach and see any evidence of the insects sent to the Mountainside Palace.
“We are done,” Tallu said, his voice echoing in the room despite the fact that he had not shouted. Compared to King Inor’s disintegration in front of our eyes, it was clear who the ruler was. “By law of hospitality, we are grateful for your generosity and take our leave.”
The shadows shifted again, and Asahi pushed in front of me, Sagam darting in front of Tallu just as General Maki walked out from behind King Inor’s throne. His face glowed, and he smiled jovially.
“Will you, Emperor Tallu?” Maki laughed, the sound setting his body into jerky motion. He placed his hand on his stomach, the stump of his other hanging loosely at his side. “I would not recommend leaving just now.”
I squinted at the throne again, trying to see where Maki had come from. It glowed translucently, but was that just an optical illusion? Had he been hiding behind it?
Or had some unseen stone mage raised him from the floor beneath?
Seated, the Shadow King sat tall, his face turning placid. He raised a hand, gesturing to General Maki. “I believe you know General Maki? He has recently joined the Badger Guild, and we have found him very useful.”
“Traitor,” Sagam hissed. He moved forward but kept his hands free of weapons.
“The laws of hospitality still apply,” Maki said contemptuously. His smile turned to a sneer before he shook his head. “No matter what the old man has told you, Saxu has no idea what he will face if he brings his forces against ours.”
“It was not very long ago that you considered the Imperium’s forces ‘ours,’” Tallu said mildly. “How quickly your alliance changes. It is almost as though you are untrustworthy.”
Maki maintained his smile, shaking his head. “You mock me and the Shadow King, but it is only because you have no idea what Krustau is now capable of.”
“Is it the blasphemous act of raising men from the dead?” Tallu said disdainfully.
The corners of Maki’s eyes tightened, but his lips maintained their curve upward even as they thinned.
“We saw what you were doing. We saw the corpses you left behind at the Lakeshore Palace.” I shook my head. “Wires in their ears, going straight into their brains? That is a far cry from raising them from the dead. None of them appeared living. None of them appeared able to move.”
“That was only the beginning. They were failures. I am a scientist. And a failure is only one step upon the path to success.” Maki turned, bowing respectfully to King Inor, his fingers forming a triangle. “And now I have found a true path to success, a true way to make my vision real.”
I frowned at the king, thinking again of the voices in the dark. Had Inor’s astounding abilities—his magic beyond anything I had ever heard—allowed him to control the insect creatures? Was he the one holding their reins?
“Maki.” Tallu shook his head, his lips pulled to the side. “I pity you. You would cleave to the strongest power you can find. Have all the other generals forsaken you so you waste yourself here?”
Tallu’s words were provoking, and I recognized them as something I would say when trying to get more information. Asahi and Sagam still stood tense in front of us, a human shield for whatever was coming next.
“You pity me?” Maki laughed, his voice turning ugly. “You pity me? I am about to oversee the end of the Imperium. With these weapons—with these creatures—”
Maki froze, his mouth open, his eyes wide and unmoving. His neck twitched, cracking uncomfortably. He closed his mouth, blinking rapidly.
“You will see. It is foolish to try and explain when you will not be escaping here without seeing the true power of Krustau.” When he pulled his lips back from his teeth, there were too many of them, too sharp for a human. “Yes, you will see.”
The room began to rattle and hum, the rocks above us sending sparkles of rainbow colors across the room. One by one, the lights went out, starting in the back of the room and flickering forward, snuffed out. Soon, we would be left in darkness.
Sagam put his hand backward, his fingers flicking in a motion I didn’t understand.
Tallu grabbed my hand tightly and backed up, sliding his foot along the ground before putting his weight on it.
Frozen in place, Asahi stood with his body unmoving, but I could hear whispers coming from behind his mask.
“Asahi,” Sagam hissed. “What are you saying?”
Finally, finally, someone could hear what I did, but Asahi shook his head sharply, turning to look at us, the whites of his eyes consuming his pupils. He took several steps back, guarding me, as we barely outpaced the coming darkness.
The lights nearest the throne vanished into it. King Inor and General Maki evaporated into shadows. When we got to the room’s entrance, what then?
Only a stone mage had been able to open the doors. They were heavy, too heavy for us alone.
We were getting close, and I could hear footsteps in the dark. The normal sound of a man’s feet coming toward us, but also the clicks of a dozen sharp, pointed talons on stone floor. Tallu’s hand was tight on mine.
Earlier, I held his hand to prevent him from breaking hospitality, but the time for that was long past. I pushed my coat back, my fingers hovering just over a knife I had stashed at my lower back.